Camden wrote:Bryn Forbes would have been on my shortlist of guards, but we already scooped him up.
- Cody Martin
- Caleb Martin
- Tomas Satoransky
- Serge Ibaka
- Hassan Whiteside
I think of the guys that play PG That is left I like Satoransky the best. Plus he can play 2 other positions too. I think he can still played and seemed to get back to his productive self for the Wizards last year. I assume Schroder gets more than the vet min or has a better opportunity elsewhere.
Looking at some younger PG type options maybe on a 2-way deal. Is Mac McClung someone that's intriguing? He looks fun I know at one point there was some hype about him during the season. He put up some impressive stats in the g-league.
Camden wrote:Bryn Forbes would have been on my shortlist of guards, but we already scooped him up.
- Cody Martin
- Caleb Martin
- Tomas Satoransky
- Serge Ibaka
- Hassan Whiteside
I think of the guys that play PG That is left I like Satoransky the best. Plus he can play 2 other positions too. I think he can still played and seemed to get back to his productive self for the Wizards last year. I assume Schroder gets more than the vet min or has a better opportunity elsewhere.
Looking at some younger PG type options maybe on a 2-way deal. Is Mac McClung someone that's intriguing? He looks fun I know at one point there was some hype about him during the season. He put up some impressive stats in the g-league.
Camden wrote:Bryn Forbes would have been on my shortlist of guards, but we already scooped him up.
- Cody Martin
- Caleb Martin
- Tomas Satoransky
- Serge Ibaka
- Hassan Whiteside
I think of the guys that play PG That is left I like Satoransky the best. Plus he can play 2 other positions too. I think he can still played and seemed to get back to his productive self for the Wizards last year. I assume Schroder gets more than the vet min or has a better opportunity elsewhere.
Looking at some younger PG type options maybe on a 2-way deal. Is Mac McClung someone that's intriguing? He looks fun I know at one point there was some hype about him during the season. He put up some impressive stats in the g-league.
Satoransky signed a deal overseas recently.
Thanks. That makes sense I was a little surprised that the Wizards didn't bring him back. I'm sure he will do well in Barcelona.
Phenom's_Revenge wrote:Who are targets for the BAE? Or save it for next summer?
I haven't thought about potential BAE targets. The world has change so quickly. My only thought is that this team should NOT be saving anything. This deal puts the Wolves in total win-now mode. I don't like it, but it's the reality. I wish they hadn't already used the full MLE on Anderson, but that's ok. They need to make the best use of the BAE right now in my view. Now when I see who's left in the free agent pool I might change my mind. :)
Phenom's_Revenge wrote:Who are targets for the BAE? Or save it for next summer?
I haven't thought about potential BAE targets. The world has change so quickly. My only thought is that this team should NOT be saving anything. This deal puts the Wolves in total win-now mode. I don't like it, but it's the reality. I wish they hadn't already used the full MLE on Anderson, but that's ok. They need to make the best use of the BAE right now in my view. Now when I see who's left in the free agent pool I might change my mind. :)
The main reason why I think they should save the bi-annual exception at this point is because the rotation, as currently constructed, is easily 10 deep. And they're all solid players or better. They might need that exception next summer if tweaks are necessary and/or if certain players aren't retained. Minnesota can use it this summer or next, but not both.
thedoper wrote:Going forward we are going to see if Finch is a legit great coach. The pieces are there to be a unique offense with top 5 defensive potential.
It's time to go back and watch some New Orleans Pelicans games from the 2017-18 season. How Chris Finch, a top assistant at the time, was tasked with incorporating Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins together could serve as some sort of blueprint for what he wants to do with Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert in Minnesota, at least offensively.
Side note: Dell Demps was the GM in New Orleans who acquired Cousins from Sacramento with the vision of having him play next to Davis. That was right as the league was beginning its full makeover to switch to small ball. This Gobert trade has his fingerprints on it to some degree I would imagine.
thedoper wrote:Going forward we are going to see if Finch is a legit great coach. The pieces are there to be a unique offense with top 5 defensive potential.
It's time to go back and watch some New Orleans Pelicans games from the 2017-18 season. How Chris Finch, a top assistant at the time, was tasked with incorporating Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins together could serve as some sort of blueprint for what he wants to do with Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert in Minnesota, at least offensively.
Im all for it. Hopefully KAT finds the vision this year. He's going to have some space to be a real facilitator. Adelman would be drooling over this roster.
I'm still processing here. Holy balls. This team is going to be weird and crazy and it could actually be really good.
Now I see we also got Forbes. Speedy little outside shooter. That will help give Finch a skill he's losing with the loss of Beasley, though obviously Beasley was bigger and better generally.
Ok, let's look at everything we have here. There are two ways to do this. Traditionally, we make a list of guys playing at certain positions. I like how Q also adapted a list like this of possible rotation guys playing in multiple positions, since that's the reality. I liked that. Here though, I'll stick with a straight up list of everybody on the roster listed once at the position they'll likely play the most at (if they play) for now.
The first thing that stands out there is that we've got a bit more balance on the roster than the last year or two when we've been loaded with guards but thin at PF and Center.
The second thing is that, as has been mentioned, it would be a good idea to go out and get one more backup point guard, even though we have a bunch of guys at other positions who can handle some ball handling and maybe even playmaking duties (Forbes, Nowell, Moore, Prince, SloMo). McKinley Wright is gone. I did see the name Rubio mentioned earlier. Jesus, I'd love to get that guy back. He could certainly get more playing time elsewhere but his history with us and Gobert and us, plus the chance to really compete for a championship, could potentially convince him. I'm a little wary of him coming off an ACL tear, but he'd basically be a coach in a uniform who could probably actually play if needed. That's not bad for a 15th man.
Another way to assess what we have is by listing the guys who can bring certain skills to the table. (this may take a few posts . . .
Shot blocking
Gobert!
Naz (ok)
McDaniels (ok for position)
Minott (maybe, but will he get to play???)
Losing Beverley here kind of hurts actually. But we just added Gobert, so this is looking decent. For the record, SloMo is not really a shot blocker, but he's a good interior defender in the sense that opponents tend to shooter a lower percentage close to the basket when he's on them. Seriously, guys who have panned his signing really need to look at what he brings to the table.
Rebounding
Gobert!
KAT
SloMo
Most of our other guys are subpar rebounders for their position. Again, losing Vando and PatBev kind of hurts us here. But also, again, we just got Gobert. Leading rebounder in the league.
Perimeter defense
McDaniels
Ant (in the playoffs)
Moore (maybe, but how much will he play??)
Minott (looked good in flashes in college, but doubt he'll get to play)
SloMo (he's a deceptively good perimeter defender because of his length)
I think the rest of our guys are average perimeter defenders at best. Obviously, having Rudy in the paint takes some of the pressure off this skill. But as I think about it, this is a skill we probably want to improve in, especially now with PatBev (and even Vando) gone. Bringing back Okogie on a vet min. might not be a bad idea. It would be better to get a guy who can also shoot on offense though. So maybe Caleb Martin?
Here's a list of the free agents that might still be available who the Wolves should consider for their final two roster spots:
1. TJ Warren - Likely take the $4.1M BAE to sign him. His vet min. would be $2.6M. High risk/reward.
2. Caleb Martin - Next best SF available after Warren; much lower risk than TJ. Wolves apparently interested.
3. Moses Brown - Gobert's understudy. We're going big; he's very big and young. Otherwise it's just Naz
4. Greg Monroe - He's solid. Good center depth
5. Avery Bradley - Beverley light? Defense and 3-point shooting. Anything left in his tank?
6. Lou Williams - He wants back in the League. Worth a min contract?
7. Gorgui - He's long a slow. Should fit well. :) Actually a solid big for a deeper bench
8. Josh Okogie - We know him. Players love him. Defends. Never any effort issues. Still pretty young.
9. Jake Layman - I actually think he's a decent player to have deep on your bench
I think any of the above could probably be signed for the vet minimum except TJ Warren and possibly Caleb Martin. Obviously, with TJ I'd want a full medical review of his foot. Of course, even clearance from medical staff doesn't eliminate the risk of re-occurrence. It's the nature of foot injuries to return. But if we could get TJ for the vet minimum, I'd sign him in a heartbeat in spite of the risk. And I might take the risk of giving using the BAE if necessary to sign him. Not sure we could sign Caleb for the $1.8 vet minimum. Not sure I'd pay him the BAE, but maybe. The reason I'm interested in SFs is because I'm not convinced we can count on McDaniels at that position next season. And we're clearly in win-now mode.
I like the idea of signing Moses Brown. And maybe learning from the similarly sized Gobert. Brown is already proven to be a really good rebounder. And he has tremendous size. If we can sign him to the minimum, he's be worth it in my view. Otherwise, if Gobert misses games due to injury, we have to change our scheme. Brown would give us a Gobert size size big to step into the team's primary scheme.
